The 'Bintel Brief' History: a Chapter
in the Story. of U. S. Jewish Journalism
There is a famous "institution"
in Jewish life that is known by its
two Yiddish words: Bintel Brief.
For six decades the Yiddish daily,
the Forward, conducted a column
under this name and many prob-
lems were aired as a result of the
letters that were written to the
editor and were printed under the
title "A Sheaf of Letters," the
English for bintel brief.
It's a real service, as history, to
have this phenomenon in Jewish
life interpreted and samples of
these letters presented to the
English-reading public as an under-
standing of what had transpired in
Jewish ranks, especially in the era
of large-scale Jewish migrations
to this country.
And the practice continues. This
reviewer was on the staff of the
Detroit News when Nancy Brown
(she was the late Mrs. J. E. Leslie)
was introduced to the public in an
Experience column to give a plat-
form to those who had ' troubling
issues to confront, and "Nancy"
handled them through the newly
introduced column. There were
members of the staff who were
revolted by it: but Malcolm Bingay
who, as managing editor, insisted
upon it, proved correct in his judg-
ment. Now most newspapers boast
of similar columns and all sorts
of family and community issues,
squabbles, sex issues, feuds be-
tween husbands and wives are
aired—and advice is solicited.
The commencement of that
tradition is represented in "A
Bintel Brief—Sixty Years of Let-
ters From the Lower East Side
to the Jewish Daily Forward,"
published by Doubleday.
Well tailed by Isaac Metzker,
who has written for the Forward
for many years, and who had the
assistance in this work of his wife,
Bella S. Metzker; containing a rep-
resentative number of the letters
in translations by Diana Shalet
Levy, the informative introduction
and an equally illuminating fore-
word by Harry Golden, who also
wrote a number of explanatory
travel expenses, then what will we do
there later? How will we make a living
with our six children? And if he goes
alone it'll be hard for me to get along
without him here. I have no desire
whatever to go, but I am afraid he'll
talk the older children into going too.
I beg you to give me your opinion
about his plan. to go live in Palestine.
He has never seen and doesn't know
how to work on a plantation.
Your reader,
S.J.B.
ANSWER:
The writer and her husband should
go to the American Economic Commit-
tee for Palestine at 17 East Forty-
Second Street, New York. There they
can get the necessary information about
the production of oranges in Palestine.
Also they can tell this man whether
he is suited for this kind of work.
But if the woman absolutely does
not want to leave America, the man
should consider her and should not
break up his home.
notes to some of the letters, make
this work stand out as a notable
record of an era that has not ended.
In fact, the Bintel Brief remains
a vital factor of the Forward, and
in the past few years there still
appeared letters from readers ask-
ing for advice on marital prob-
lems, infidelity of husbands, telling
of illegitimacy, and other happen-
ings in the lives of people who
needed guidance.
The panorama is so vast in
this reproduction of letters on
every conceivable issue that it is
not so easy to review all the
aspects of a phenomenal situation
that was created by the establish.
And here is an exchange, the
ment of this sort of advice col-
umn. It is a thoroughly Jewish inquiry and the reply, that shows
set of experiences and unlike the frankness in the Bintel Brief
other similar columns it is not policies:
an advice to the lovelorn but a Dear Editor:
I ask you to give me some advice in
vast human experience.
my situation.
They were personal problems but
I am a young man of twenty-five, six-
there were political, social, eco- teen years in America, and I recently
met a fine girl. She has a flaw, however,
nomic involvements. Some of the that keeps me from marrying her. The
Golden annotations explain such fault is she has a dimple in her chin,
it is said that people who have this
issues that have arisen among and
lose their first husband or wife.
Jews as intermarriage, Israel, life
At first I laughed at the idea, but
on New York's Lower East Side. later it began to bother me. I began to
observe people with dimpled chins and
There was the Zionist urge that found out that their first husbands or
caused a problem for one family, wives really had died prematurely. I
so interested in this that whenever
and this letter and the reply it I got
see someone with this defect I ask
received are of special interest, about it immediately, and I find out
that some of the men have lost their
especially since they date back to first
wives, and some of the women's
1933:
first husbands are dead.
Worthy Editor,
I have been a reader of the Forverts
all the nineteen years I've been in
America, and I can tell you that here,
in this country,-I have not yet had one
quiet minute. I am the mother of six
children, and this alone is enough worry
and bother to a mother. But that's not
all. The main thing is that I always
had to work to provide bread for my
children. My husband is a janitor and
earns very little.
But I have not come to you to coin-
plain about my hard work. It's about
an altogether different thing. From my
hard labor, I have saved up several
hundred dollars, and naturally this is
not a secret from my husband. But
now he wants me to give him the
money. And what do you think he
wants it for? To buy an orange planta-
tion in Palestine. Actually, he already
bought the plantation and made the
down payment and he wants us to go
there to live. He wants the money for
a ticket so he can go to Palestine first
by himself.
I argue with him that if this little
money I've saved will be spent for
This Week in Jewish History
(From the files of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
This upset me so that I don't know
what to do. I can't leave my sweetheart.
I love her very much. But I'm afraid to
marry her lest I die because of the dim-
ple. I've questioned many people. Some
say it's true, others laugh at the idea.
Perhaps you, too, will laugh at me for
being such a fool and believing such
nonsense, but I cannot rest until I hear
your opinion about it. I want to add
that my sweetheart knows nothing
about this.
Respectfully,
The Unhappy Fool
AlsTS-W kFer
The tragedy is not that the girl Jaw a
dimple in her chin but that some people
have a screw loose in their heads! One
would need the knowledge of a genius
to explain how a dimple in the chin
could drive a husband or wife to the
grave. Does the angel of death sit hid-
ing in the dimple? It seems to us that
it is a beauty spot, and we -never im-
agined it could house the Devil!
It's tragic 'humor to find such super-
stition in the world today. It's truly
shameful that a young man who was
brought up in AMerica should ask such
questions. To calm him, we wish to tell
him we know many people with such
dimples who have not lost their 'hus-
bands or wives, but live out 'their years
together in great happiness.
The Bintel Brief anthology is a
chapter in American Jewish -jour-
40 Years Ago This Week: 1931
nalistic_ history. It's _a recapitula-
The new Romanian government acted to suppress attacks on tion of - ,experiences - as enjoyable
minorities. Premier Nicolai Jorga said: "The Jews are human the today as wheh they first appeared.
same as we are."
—P. S.
Noted German Jewish poet Dr. Saul Tchernichovsky left Berlin
for Palestine.
The only Jewish mayor in Missouri was discovered to be J. Lowen-
heirn of Bridgeton, which had two Jewish families (including Lowen-
heirn's) among its 121-family population.
Henry Morgenthau, philanthropist and ex-ambassador to Turkey,
died in New York at 75.
Dr. Isidore Kitsee, prolific inventor who claimed ancestry back
to Moses Maimonides, the Rambam, died in Philadelphia at 87.
Nazi lieutenant -Joseph Paul Goebbeis was seized on a contempt-
of-court charge, his third arrest in two weeks.
Dr. Ernst Praetorius, ousted as bandmaster of the Weimar
National Theater because his wife was Jewish, was reinstated by
Thuringia's new, non-Fascist cabinet council.
Growing Concern for Survival
Among Venezuelan Jewry
(Copyright 1971, JTA, Inc.)
When the new facilities of Cara-
cas' Jewish day school were dedi-
cated several months ago, it mat-
tered little to those present at the
ceremonies that their children
would be studying Torah on a site
once used by priests for medita-
tion. They were more concerned
about the highway being built
alongside the school which would
make transportation easier.
This is characteristic of Vene-
zuela—a spirit of tolerance coupled
with a desire for progress. The
15,000 Jews who live here enjoy
these benefits along with some
10,000,000 Catholic fellow citizens.
Venezuela's position as a major
oil exporter makes it unique among
Latin American nations. While its
neighbors on the continent suffer
from economic and social ills
which many fear will lead them to
Communism, in this Caribbean
land, revolution seems far away at
the moment.
Jews have a comfortable life
in Caracas and Maracaibo, the
cities with the two largest com-
munities. The immigrant genera-
tion deals in business, while the
younger people are professionals.
The average Jewish youth goes to
college to study medicine or en-
gineering, cares little for local
political activity, and hopes to
make a good living when he
graduates.
WHAT'S ALL
.
An Israeli psychiatrist who met with Adolf Eichmann in jail 30
times was quoted as saying: "By purely psychiatric tests, Eichmann
seems more normal than I am by now."
Franz Joseph Mueller, 50, former SS aide to Eichmann who - served
as commandant of three Nazi concentration camps, was sentenced in
Bonn to life imprisonment for murder.
The Protestant churches of Berlin and Brandenburg asked their
congregants to accept the following text: "All Germans who 'were, old
enough to recognize the National Socialist atrocities and the extermina-
tion of the Jewish people—even if they themselves helped their Jewish
fellow-citizens—must admit that they too made themselves accomplices
because of their lack of watchful and self-sacrificing love . . . With
God's mercy we must confess to having lived for a long time in grave
aberration. From now on, we turn to our Jewish fellow-citizens with
feelings and deeds such that they may confide in us again."
The merger of Israel's General Zionist and Progressive parties
became official at the founding convention of the new Liberal Party.
Former Premier Moshe Sharett urged American Zionists to "once
and for all establish a central organization."
Dr. Isaac I. Schwartzbart, founder and first president of the
World Union of General Zionists and long an official of the World
Jewish Congress, died in New York at 72.
The American Jewish Committee reported that anti-Jewish barriers
at major banking firms were being relaxed.
What's at the commotion across the street'! ecoplc arc gaihciing.
An accident. probably. A traffic accident, as usual. A ,collision
tom
in .17nrba
48—Friday, April 23, 1971
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
113711 DV 017171
, ' 13,1?1pno
aims nx*5 tip flies?! nRE?
?lnlDil? 1 4
"Blessed are they who Linen at :home". Perhaps someone has
been run oNer. God forbid
Everyone thinks that the road belongs to him.,
.
The pedestrians? What nonsense! What have the pedestrians done
Moshch: not'ntse*."-ThepedeStrians jui.et ttip the street. They don't
They just Walk!
They walk! Of course. they walk! What should they do. fly?
Moshch:' Noe exactly fly. They shodld pa).attinition to the traffic light and
'cross at the croskwalks;
•
.16seph':
That's right. Jerusalemites don't wait for' the •green light. They
waif on;
nx
Please don't exaggerate: The people in Jerusalem are like people
?DID'?
.71:47
Lin7 nx °'41n on
Exactly. besides, sometimes a person is in a great hurry. He wants
:7112t
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some are reckless and irresponsible.
to be punctual and not to come late, and he has no patience to
OrtS n7F1
:not,
note n'in .nipn 571 inn xln D7'?77:41,? "?...gry
everywhere. Most of them obey the rules and regulations, but
Rachel:
:rut5
n717t1p-il
a'a5i1
cross the street :my time and any place.
Leah:
r11p_9? pn7 '75rj
.1`pe
1
r ".?? " '17713r'? °T r: '?5i1
pay any tit ktnion, to the traftiC;f0e);.bo,ti:t IV to either side.
Leah:
.37141'Sa 171115
D'1?Y 5 '7 ?)1
.ant
Worse thhti they.
Joseph:
nn
On . 7, ,rt?? ,''.?Vt .1r?
,nx 5? !rrtr,i
Anything can happen because Orsueh recklessness. These drivers!
. Moshch: The drivers -:ire no saints, bill- sometimes the pedestrians are
•nr, :D'ormenn
■ .rTrtn orlyri la
cser you cross the street.
Leah:
'7, .. 1 1
11)3itT*1 .311 111¢59)1
.. 7.1 ,0`711 npxr
Moshch: Someone gels hurt every minute. you really risk your life when-
Joseph:
.
. 0 `701rr:# . 33;0 h/T? : 1"-AP.r
between (no cars or some such thing:
10 Years Ago This Week: 1961
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF HEBREW CULTURE
THrtommoTioNT?
The police tare there)! What's up?
Rachel:
By Shlo;no`kodesit
TARBUTH FOUNDATION .
Cast: Moshch, Joseph. Rachel and Leahiceite: 'A street corner irt
Leah:
••
Aliya has grown since the Six-Day
War as has the general concern
with Jewish survival. Educational
facilities have been improved and
expanded with the opening of a
new school building for the Colegio
Maraley Luces-Herzl Bialik. At the
same time, a yeshiva-type depart-
ment for those who want a more
religious education has been estab-
lished within the framework of
Maraley Luces. The dining room in
the new building is kosher, some-
thing which probably would not
have been so just a few years ago.
A large measure of the progress
within the community is no doubt ---
due to the presence since 1967 of
two American-trained rabbis who
have used their influence and know-
how to the benefit of their follow-
ers. At the same time, the leader-2
ship of the communal institutions
is being put in the lia-aids-of younger
men who have big pInns-and great
hopes for the futurebtVenezuela's
Jews.
The Central University is closed
at this writing in an effort to rid
it of petty politics, but few of the
500 Jewish students have been in-
volved in reform activities. The
two strongest university youth or-
ganizations, the MUS (Zionist
University Movement) and the
Bnai Brith Hillel Foundation, with
a combined membership of about
175, meet off-campus as Vene-
zuelan universities do not have
facilities for religiously affiliated
groups.
Venezuela is a prominent mem-
ber of the OPEC (Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries),
the only non-Asian and non-Moslem
one. At the inauguration of a recent
OPEC conference in Caracas, the
-Arab delegates, who constituted
the majority, created an unpleasant
incident when, they refused to be
seated as long 'as the Israeli am-
A Cohversation Seriei
Released
bassador was present in the hall.
Indicative of Venezuela's sensitiv-
ity to the Middle East problem is
the fact that Foreign Minister
Aristides Calvani personally es-
corted the Israeli representative
from the premises when he decided
to leave as a courtesy to Vene-
zuela's President Caldera, who was
to give the inaugural speech.
Like most South American coun-
tries, Venezuela tries to steer a
neutral course in the stormy seas
of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel
has an aid mission here, with ex-
perts working in the fields of agri-
culture, banking and water devel-
opment. At the same time, the
large Arab community of over
50,000 has a strong voice and one
of its members is president of the
Chamber of Deputies in the Vene-
zuelan Congress.
The left is generally pro-Arab
and anti-Israel. Almost every
issue of the Communist Party
paper, Tribuna Popular, carries
some item giving voice to these
attitudes. The Soviet Union will
soon open an embassy in Cara-
cas, while Venezuela is to occupy
the building vacated by Israel in
Moscow when relations were
broken with the Soviets in 1967.
Venezuelan Jewry strongly sup-
ports Israel and allows no criticism-
of the state even by non-official
Israeli visitors.
By EDNA AIZENBERG
0F7? -79 1 Ph
innn alit trn3.:nt? .rnn inn .in pin?
rx? int??
-nie5 niDn5 nr135?t?
:1n-1
wait for a green light.
Moshch: Listen. Madam. while punctuality is truly a fine virtue, believe
me, it is better for a person to be a iew minutes late in this world
than to arrive in the next world a few years too early.
'rail mtti 571 .17'. 10 191 nrx
nn? tr7: -Itrixn
nraRryi
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moo? 1nt37 aittm n1r3
n5i171? rin`?
Excerpted from the book "Israel With A Smile", published by Tarbuth Foundation, 515 Park Ave., N.Y.C. 10022